Posts tagged with: non-corruption principle

Lawrence Lessig, a legal scholar and high-profile advocate of copyright reform, has decided to “shift my academic work, and soon, my activism, away from the issues that have consumed me for the last 10 years, towards a new set of issues.”

His new task? “‘Corruption’ as I’ve defined it elsewhere will be the focus of my work. For at least the next 10 years, it is the problem I will try to help solve.”

Just how does Lessig define “corruption”? In an extended Disclosure Statement and Statement of Principle, Lessig writes about his non-corruption principle, which is “about money.” Corruption is further defined as “the subtle pressure to take views or positions because of the financial reward they will bring you.”

Here is Lessig’s non-corruption principle, in its precise form: “I never promote as policy a position that I have been paid to advise about, consult upon, or write about. If payment is made to an institution that might reasonably be said to benefit me indirectly, then I will either follow the same rule, or disclose the payment.”

Lessig discloses the motivation for his decision, saying, “I am someone who believes that a free society — free of the ‘corruption’ that defines our current society — is necessary for free culture, and much more. For that reason, I turn my energy elsewhere for now.”